(Courtesy photo)
Benelux DHR focuses on improving garrison workforce
By Bryan Gatchell, USAG Benelux Public Affairs
USAG BENELUX – BRUSSELS – The Directorate of Human Resources at U.S. Army Garrison Benelux offers a special educational program where members of the garrison can help one another advance in their careers.
The Workforce Development Program was built in 2021 to help garrison service members and employees improve themselves in their current jobs, aid them in their careers and help them in their personal lives.
The program has at its foundation four “core learning experiences,” which were adapted from the Department of Defense’s civilian core competencies. They include accountability; customer service and continued improvement; finding common ground; and entrepreneurship.
“Every quarter is a different set of competencies,” said Sandy Arvay, the Administrative Services Division chief for USAG Benelux.
Additional specialty learning experiences that the Workforce Development Program aims to improve include business acumen, communication tools, resource management, human resources and computer literacy.
Chanda Russell, the director of Human Resources for USAG Benelux, gave an example of the practical nature of many of the program’s individual sessions.
“[Resource Management] will give a class on how to submit your overseas entitlements and allowances,” she said. “So somebody who is coming from a different agency, or maybe somebody who is brand new from overseas or is off the street, whatever the case may be, if they sat in and listened on that class they would know what they need to do and what steps to follow in order to get that [living quarters allowance] and that post allowance.”
The garrison uses Thursdays to conduct training events. Often it is mandatory training, such as suicide awareness and prevention, but the garrison will also take time to conduct these development workshops.
The Workforce Development Program also incorporates sessions led from outside the garrison. In 2021, members of the garrison took part in a “Five Levels of Leadership” seminar that was led at the Installation Management Command level.
As the program enters its second year, DHR continues to look for talent both from within the garrison workforce the wider USAG Benelux community to lead training.
“We structure it so that the facilitators, or whoever is doing the class, they don’t have to be an employee,” said Arvay. “They can be a spouse, they can be a Family member, they can be someone in the community who just has that specific expertise on these different topics or subjects and are willing to provide classes.”
DHR is also looking to connect employees with wider organizational leadership programs. These include programs connected to the Civilian Education System and the Department of Defense Executive Leader Development Program, a rigorous 10-month program of classroom activities and short-term deployments to various training bases whose participants must be selected by an Army board.
Complementing these wider DoD programs and the Workforce Development Program, DHR also runs an intra-garrison mentorship program, where mentors help guide mentees on how to develop as future Army leaders.
“We want to make sure that our employees have the proper tools to get to that next level,” said Russell.
To learn more about the Workforce Development Program, including information on facilitating classes, contact the Directorate of Human Resources by visiting their page.